Posts Tagged ‘palmer alaska’

We were out and about in Palmer chasing Bohemian Waxwings and came across this old silo. I liked the lines and the cool colors. Palmer started out as a farming community and still has those roots deep. During the dust bowl days the government gave away land to farmers who agreed to relocate to Alaska for at least 5 years. Most went back. It was not so much the cold winters and short summers as the annual (at the time) flooding of the valley. Every year an ice dam would break and flood the Matanuska Valley. This of course was great for enriching the soil, not so great for your house and other property. Plus of course it was ice water, very miserable stuff to be in quite frankly. The valley is not prone to flooding now like it used to be and there are quite a few farms still here. Sometimes you just have to stick it out. I hope you have a great year in 201o after sticking out the last one; here’s to you.

I headed out this morning to the Palmer hay flats to see what I could get in the lens by way of our migratory bird population. I was up early and set up and got to see a magnificent sunrise with the mist hanging off the valley. Birding itself was slow, I could hear the Sandhill Cranes whooping it up just out of sight in the high thrushes and I kept waiting for a lift off. They like to warm up in the sun first. They never did though, I guess they were happy to be where they were. That’s a good thing.